Despite a �wet and windy forecast, as well as a drizzly morning, Sunday turned out to be a great sailing day. A short postponement was all that was needed for the drizzle to disappear, the strength of the gusts to subside, and a few gaps in the clouds to appear.

Ever positive, OD Preston was raring to get proceedings underway only to find HE had left the OD bag ashore so the rescue crew were tasked with fetching it. It’s funny how they never seem to go flat out when you want them to!

The close reaches, and blustery gusts, were challenging for many (had Kayla’s arms stretched by the end of the race?), and too much for some, but it meant there was great planing conditions. Peter W started his day in a way that was to continue – capsizing, and getting into irons. Alastair may well have kept him good company in the capsizing stakes had he sailed his Vareo, but he took the cautious option and crewed for AJ while Sue preserved her energy for the afternoon pennant race.

With Poppy keen to maintain her lead in the Sandra’s Salver series, OD Preston just sent the fleet down as far as 11 (Surely he could be home by the time the race finished?). With a SW wind, the sailing conditions were as flukey as they come past 7, with sailing flapping and calm conditions occurring within seconds! Mike/Kayla led the fleet home winning with a six min lead on handicap. While retrieving his boat to shore he cooled off with a full immersion after slipping off the foredeck. Kayla was too shocked to ask if it was cold in there!

Fortunately Jim/Poppy’s efforts were worth it as even taking a 3rd place behind Kayla and Sue, Poppy remains in the lead for Sandra’s Salver (Long may it continue!)

BL Series etc – latest
RNLI Pennant
Sandra’s Salver – latest

After a drizzly start, the weather cleared and the day got brighter as the afternoon went on.

Graham, the rostered OD, passed the baton on to William so that he could sail the whole weekend championship series. However, with a couple of mishaps along the way in each race it wasn’t to be his best day’s racing. A good second place was lost when there was a spinnaker malfunction when taking it down at mark 2. The next race he had a poor start which he was unable to recover from.

Simon/Jon were a little too eager at the start of the first race and opted to return even before a signal was sounded. They were also part of what seemed as if it was to be a three way protest when a bank of F15s looked set for a collision course with other fleets. Although Steve and AJ didn’t finalise their protest, Val has submitted one which will be heard on Sunday.

Mike, who was going to assist William (did he forget?), took advantage of the better weather to get back at the tiller of his Laser. However, due to some necessary adjustment of his clew tie down, he started several minutes after son Josh whose start was six mins after Mike’s scheduled start! Peter W went astray when he missed out a mark of the course and retired.

Although it was not too windy, there were a few capsizes to keep the rescue crews awake.

The overnight leaders are Neil/Nick in the F15s, Steve/Ruth in the fast handicap, and Jim in the slow handicap, each with two 1sts, The position in the GPs is much closer with John and Mike/Eric each with four points.

Sunday was windy (you know it’s windy when you can see the tops of the waves looking downwind!), but there was still a good contingent that took to the water. Ian’s race didn’t start off well when his start was delayed trying to sort his furling gear. He made up the 90 secs delay only to forget that he needed to take down his spinnaker at the end of the first run…. Ethan was out with Izzie in the RS200 again, practising capsizing techniques, as was Hugh in his Vareo.
Val/Ken were caught out at the gybe mark, and Ken seemed to be resting on the centreboard while Val swam around a bit… The F15s didn’t capsize, but a couple were flattened in some of the gusts. Jim/Poppy didn’t have any competition in the slow handicap fleet so raced with the bigger boys and, as they didn’t capsize, managed to beat Hugh over the finish line.  The stand in OD’s plan to have two races before lunch was snookered when finishers just headed straight for the shore after finishing (they usually ask what’s planned!).

After lunch the wind seemed to have abated a little, but there were more capsizes, and a feast of protests, interestingly between the same F15s. Decisions as to whether to fly spinnakers proved to be key, especially if they didn’t fill quickly after hoisting, as places were quickly gained or lost depending on whether it was done well. The heavy conditions started to take its toll on the fleet, and only six boats started the final race of the series, of which the two GPs opted to retire at the end of the first beat. Neil/Rory misjudged the start sequence and didn’t notice the rest of the fleet had started for well over 30 secs! Mike/Kayla had taken an early lead, with Simon on his tail. Another lap on, and AJ retired leaving just three F15s to fight it out. The finish proved to be very close with only about a boat length between each boat. Simon finished 1st, with Neil 2nd but Neil touched the mark and rerounded, losing a place to Mike in the process.

After racing a couple of the protests were heard, resulting in Simon being disqualified from race 4. As time was getting on, and various people were going out for dinner, the third protest remains in abeyance to be heard at a later date. (Hopefully no-one noticed one of the protesters, and one of the protest committee, dining at the same venue on Sunday evening!)

Numerous sailors were wilting before the end of the day, and are certain to sleep well tonight.

The overall winners for the weekend were Jim in the Slow handicap, Mike/Eric in the GPs, Steve/Ruth in the Fast handicap, and Neil/Nick/Rory in the F15s (subject to protest).

Final results

Overcast, but warm, gentle winds were the order of the day for the RYA Onboard Youth Six Hour Relay Race which was held at the club today. Four teams of three/four youth sailors came from Derwentwater Marina, Lakes Leisure on Windermere, Low Wood Windermere and Bass. There was no random allocation of boats so three teams picked three boats with old sails giving away a potential advantage of new sails. The leading team changed throughout the day as the wind dropped and kept strengthening.

The final result had Lakes Leisure in first place. Bassenthwaite boys team, comprising Frankie Millar, Alex Wasilouski, David Rodger and Jamie Kerr, came 2nd. Third was a team from Derwentwater Marina and 4th Bassenthwaite Girls team comprising Izzie Hunter, Nikki Hutchman and Rosie Hogg. Next year’s event will be hosted by Derwentwater Marina.

In club racing, Simon realised the life of an OD is not as easy as it seems when it comes to setting courses – especially when the wind swings, or Sale Fell gets in the way of the gusts! In the F15 fleet Mike/Kayla strengthened their lead in the Dawson Trophy with another two wins, while Chris/Julie and Tim/Martin each had a 2nd and a 3rd.

Two wins by Val/Ken in the GPs from Alan/Sue enabled them to leapfrog into the lead of the Autumn Cup, pushing Alan into 2nd place.

Jim was on form again in his Supernova, taking two wins from Banter, but without enough results in the series it wasn’t enough to pass Banter who lies 2nd behind Scumper.

Latest results

Some more photos (C) Simon Longstaff
[lg_slideshow folder=”album/13sundry/”]

The breeze for sailors on Sunday was slightly stronger at times, and in the Asymmetric Cup Banter was able, with a bit of encouragement from the committee boat, to ‘get his finger out’ and build up his lead sufficiently to win from Joan/Jack and John/Janis. Perhaps he needed the same encouragement in the afternoon, as he came 2nd to Joan/Jack. Phil presently leads the series.

Mike/Kayla had two good races building up strong leads to secure two more wins from Val/Ken. Alan/Sue risked their new boat squeezing in at the start line but the other boats were clearly lenient as there was no collision with the committee or other boats, and they finished the morning with a 3rd. Jim C sailed with, and wore out, grand-daughter Poppy in Alan’s F15 in the morning, then sailed his Supernova in the afternoon, finishing 3rd. Mike leads the MJM Series.

Latest results